Morristown Festival of Books introduces 'KidFest' Saturday

The inaugural “KidFest” will be a free, rain-or-shine event within the larger festival that celebrates the joy of reading from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church Parish House, 65 South St. in Morristown.

Organizers said “KidFest” is for children of all ages — and for “the young at heart.” Guests can stop by to discover new books, listen to a story, meet a favorite author, participate in a question-and-answer session, and have their book purchases autographed.

Acclaimed authors Meg Medina (“Mango, Abulea and Me”), Courtney Sheinmel (“Stella Batts”), Heather Alexander (“A Child’s Introduction to Natural History: The Story of Our Living Earth — From Amazing Animals and Plants to Fascinating Fossils and Gems”) and Nadia Hashimi (“One Half From the East”) also will appear at “KidFest.”

Books are just the beginning of “KidFest,” however. Throughout the day, youngsters and their families are encouraged to explore their creativity and embrace their curiosity through musical acts, hands-on crafts, trivia contests, yoga, writing workshops and more.

Costumed characters and food trucks on site will round out the attractions.

Author Talks

Plus, in the Festival of Books, a full day of free author talks, panel discussions and book signings will take place at the very same time in venues adjacent to or across the street from “KidFest,” in a celebration of the power of the written word.

Four Pulitzer Prize-winners will be among the award-winning authors lined up for the Morristown Festival of Books this Friday and Saturday, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.

Widely acclaimed journalist and New York Times best-selling author of “The Perfect Storm,” “Fire,” “A Death in Belmont,” “War,” and now “Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging,” Sebastian Junger will kick off the festival with his Keynote Address at 7:30 p.m. this Friday, Sept. 30, at the Mayo Performing Arts Center at the Community Theater, 100 South St.

Tickets to Junger’s address may be purchased by calling (973) 539-8008 or by visiting the website at morristownbooks.org.

This Saturday, Oct. 1, the authors will speak and answer questions in one-hour sessions at six locales, all within walking distance of one another along South Street in historic Morristown, including St. Peter’s Church Sanctuary and Parish House, the Morristown Presbyterian Church Parish House, the Church of the Redeemer, the Morristown/Morris Township Library and the Starlight Room at the Mayo Performing Arts Center. Book sales and signings will occur at a tent on the grounds of the historic Vail Mansion.

The roster of authors with ties to New Jersey include Pulitzer Prize winners Bill Dedman and Amy Ellis Nutt, the New York Times best-selling debut author Matthew Thomas, and the “Queen of Suspense” herself, author Mary Higgins Clark, among others.

Over the summer, festival organizers also added Newark native and Rutgers University alum Dan Gutman to the author lineup. Gutman has written extensively on topics ranging from computers to baseball, and is best known for his Baseball Card Adventures series for children, “The Genius Files,” and most recently, his best-selling “My Weird School” series.

The Lineup

The author lineup includes:

Literary Fiction:

Emma Donoghue (Featured title: “The Wonder”).

Colson Whitehead (Featured title: “The Underground Railroad”).

In his new novel, Whitehead chronicles a young slave girl’s terrifying journey of escape.

Nadia Hashimi (Featured title: “A House Without Windows”).

Thrillers:

Mary Higgins Clark (Featured title: “As Time Goes By”).

Clark’s latest thriller tells the story of a news reporter who begins her search for her birth mother just as she is assigned to cover a high-profile trial of a woman accused of murdering her wealthy husband.

Karin Slaughter (Featured title: “The Kept Woman”).

The author of the widely acclaimed “Pretty Girls” and bestselling “Will Trent” series returns with this emotionally complex thriller that has readers at the edge of their seats. “Will Trent” is brought in on a murder case inextricably linked to his own troubled past, and the consequences just might destroy him.

Peter Swanson (Featured title: “The Kind Worth Killing”).

Swanson’s latest thriller has it all — love, infidelity, intrigue — and a plot to kill.

Fantasy:

Naomi Novik (Featured title: “Uprooted”).

A fantasy influenced by the Polish fairy tales of Novik’s childhood, “Uprooted” weaves tales of a heroine’s adventures that are enchanting, magical, and utterly unforgettable.

Romance:

Eloisa James (Featured title: “My American Duchess”).

An arrogant Duke, his brother, and a bold and adventuresome American heiress make up the love triangle of this lush and vibrant romance novel.

Sarah MacLean (Featured title: “A Scot in the Dark”).

Miss Lillian Harwood longs for love and readily agrees to pose for a scandalous portrait — then finds that the artist has in fact betrayed her and made the portrait public.

Lauren Willig (Featured title: “The Other Daughter”).

A romance centering around two half-sisters who are brought together after one of the sister’s mothers has died, “The Other Daughter” is a page-turner full of deceit, passion, and revenge.

Short Stories:

Mia Alvar (Featured title: “In the Country”).

In nine globe-trotting tales, Alvar gives voice to the women and men of the Philippines and its diaspora.

Debut Authors:

Matthew Thomas (Featured title: “We Are Not Ourselves”).

A gripping family saga about the quest for the American Dream, “We Are Not Ourselves” presents an extraordinary view of early-onset Alzheimer’s and the emotional, physical, and financial toll it takes on one ordinary, middle-class American family.

Imbolo Mbue (Featured title: “Behold the Dreamers”).

Sharon Guskin (Featured title: “The Forgetting Time”).

A single mom confronts the possibility that her troubled son is the reincarnated spirit of a murdered child.

Lynda Cohen Loigman (Featured title: “The Two-Family House”).

A heart-wrenching, gripping multi-generational story about friendship, marriage, and long buried secrets.

Naomi Jackson (Featured title: “The Star Side of Bird Hill”).

Wendy Walker (Featured title: “All Is Not Forgotten”).

A stunning debut suspense novel about a family and community that are put to the test when a young woman is raped — and then given a drug that erases her memory of the assault.

Non-Fiction

History:

Stacy Schiff (Featured title: “The Witches: Salem, 1692”).

The first great American mystery is unveiled fully for the first time by one of America’s most acclaimed historians.

Bill Dedman (Featured title: “Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune”).

Reclusive heiress Huguette Clark, who owned several palatial homes, yet lived for 20 years in a simple hospital room despite being in excellent health, is at the heart of this rich mystery of wealth and loss that connects the Gilded Age opulence of the 19th century with a 21st century battle over a $300 million inheritance.

Debut author Mays recounts the thrilling tale of two mysterious men — a brilliant author and his obsessive collector — separated by space and time. Mays’ talk at the Festival will coincide with the national tour of Shakespeare’s First Folio coming to Drew University in Madison for the month of October.

Election:

Ari Berman (Featured title: “Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America”).

This groundbreaking narrative history charts both the transformation of American democracy under the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the counterrevolution that has sought to limit voting rights, providing new insight into one of the most vital political and civil rights issues of our time.

Finance:

Rana Foroohar (Featured title: “Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business”).

Exploring the forces that have led American businesses to favor balance-sheet engineering over actual engineering and the pursuit of short-term corporate profits over job creation, Foroohar discusses how financialization has harmed our society, and why reversing this trend is of grave importance to us all.

An intimate insider’s portrait of how and why the Iraq adventure failed. Sky exposes the failures of the policies of both Republicans and Democrats, and the lessons that must be learned about the limitations of power.

Social Policy/Gender Identity:

Amy Ellis Nutt (Featured title: “Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family”).

An inspiring, true story of an American family confronting an issue that is at the center of today’s debate on gender identity. “Becoming Nicole” is not only profoundly moving — it is also both timely and necessary.

Autism:

John Donvan, co-author (Featured title: “In a Different Key: The Story of Autism”).

Caren Zucker, co-author (Featured title: “In a Different Key: The Story of Autism”).

An extraordinary narrative history of autism.

Sports:

Gilbert M. Gaul (Featured title: “Billion-Dollar Ball: A Journey through the Big-Money Culture of College Football”).

In this riveting and shocking look inside the money culture of college football, Gaul examines the consequences of college coaches being among the highest-paid public employees in the country, and of players receiving ten times more in scholarship awards than academically gifted students.

When Kate Orton sees a pop-up ad on her computer for an amazing lizard from Australia, she has to have it. The ad says the lizard can change its color to blend in with its surroundings, and it can change its shape. After anxiously checking the mail every day for two weeks, the package finally arrives — but there’s no lizard inside. There’s only an egg with a written warning. Is Kate ready for what’s about to hatch?

Nick Bruel (Featured title: “Bad Kitty, Scaredy-Cat”).

“Bad Kitty” is back in her first full-length picture book, and she’s up against something scary, something creepy, something more frightening than “Puppy’s” good moods: Halloween.

Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Featured title: “Biscuit Feeds the Pets”).

Beginning readers’ favorite little yellow puppy is ready to help his neighbor feed her pets. But what happens when playtime gets in the way of mealtime? “Biscuit” might just find a new way to make sure everyone gets what they need.

When Hensel and Gretel’s dad gets snatched by a fox, the sisters put their ninja skills to work to track him down before he can be stir-fried.

Meg Medina (Featured title: “Mango, Abuela, and Me”).

Mia’s abuela (grandmother) has moved in and Mia quickly discovers that Abuela can’t read the words inside Mia’s favorite book. While they cook, Mia tries to help Abuela learn English, and Mia learns some Spanish too, but it’s not enough for Abuela to tell Mia all her stories. Then Mia sees a parrot in the pet-shop window and has a perfecto idea.

Courtney Sheinmel (Featured title: “Stella Batts Scaredy Cat”).

Stella Batts can’t wait for the class sleepover at the library. Dressed in their pajamas, the students and teachers begin their fun with a scavenger hunt, and Stella is giddy with excitement — that is, until she finds something spooky in her search.

Nadia Hashimi (Featured title: “One Half From the East”).

A coming-of-age journey set in modern-day Afghanistan that explores life as a “bacha posh” — a preteen girl dressed as a boy. Life in this in-between place is confusing, until Obayda meets another bacha posh. Their transformation won’t last forever, though — unless the two friends can figure out a way to make their newfound freedoms endure.

Heather Alexander (Featured title: “A Child’s Introduction to Natural History: The Story of Our Living Earth — From Amazing Animals and Plants to Fascinating Fossils and Gems”).

Young Adult:

David Lubar (Featured title: “Character, Driven”).

Time is running out for Cliff Sparks. With only one year left of high school, he is desperate to find a girlfriend and to figure out what to do with the rest of his life, since he’s pretty sure his unemployed father plans to kick him out of the house the minute he turns 18.

Carolyn Mackler (Featured title: “Infinite in Between”).

“The Breakfast Club” meets “Boyhood” in this striking young adult novel from Printz Honor author Carolyn Mackler, which chronicles the lives of five teenagers through the thrills, heartbreaks, and joys of their four years in high school.

Meg Medina (Featured title: “Burn Baby Burn”).

While violence runs rampant throughout New York, a teenage girl faces danger within her own home in Meg Medina’s riveting coming-of-age novel.

The official 2016 sponsor of the Morristown Festival of Books is Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management.

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